arianna huffington posts

After mentoring a group of eager sixth graders for the past 10 weeks, several Boston AOLers got the chance last week to see our students shine.Through the Citizen Schools program, which partners with middle schools in low-income communities to extend the learning day and provide students with new learning opportunities and experiences, we've worked with the kids to teach them all about business networking.

At last week's "6 Degrees of Boston WOW!" event, we saw our young apprentices test their skills shaking hands, making small talk, asking career-related questions and politely transitioning between conversations. Other Boston AOLers joined us at the event to staff an AOL booth, trade-show-style. Our team exchanged business cards and career information with the students and socialized with future engineers, doctors, pianists, and basketball players.

The event culminated the second consecutive semester the Boston office has participated in the Citizen Schools program, with which AOL has partnered for the past three years. Our colleagues in New York have also mentored groups of kids twice yearly, culminating in "WOW" events hosted in the New York office. In addition, Tim Armstrong and Arianna Huffington taught a Citizen Schools class about local journalism last year.

Last night the Huffington Post Canada team celebrated their first birthday- and in style, if we do say so ourselves! The two-story office transformed into a playground for clients, politicians, bloggers, friends, media, and of course, our (newly-coined) honourary Canadian, Arianna Huffington! Oh, and Conrad Black (pictured above). Even Team HuffPost Quebec jumped on the short flight from Montreal to celebrate their English counterparts.

We presented the HuffPost Canada team with a video of birthday wishes from some favourite friends- including CBC's George Stroumboulopoulos, Marc and Craig Kielburger of Free the Children, Conrad Black and Leader of the Official Opposition party of Canada, Thomas Mulcair.

Marking the first of a new kind of content partnership, an Oprah Winfrey section will launch on HuffPost in August featuring content created and curated by writers and producers from OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. The content, which will be created specifically for HuffPost, will include articles, blogs and interactive content with advice and resources encouraging people to discover their best selves to lead happy, fulfilling lives.

The special section will tap into HuffPost's network of bloggers and community to engage with one another around the content while reaching the audiences of both HuffPost and Oprah.com.

"We are thrilled to partner with Oprah Winfrey and OWN," said Arianna Huffington. "Oprah was about engagement and authenticity long before engagement and authenticity ruled the web. And since those qualities are deeply embedded in the DNA of both OWN and HuffPost, I'm delighted that we'll be working together to enlarge the conversation on living our best lives, as Oprah puts it, just as we launch our GPS for the Soul app."

"This partnership is a great example of our innovative digital efforts to provide unique ways to engage with our viewers using online and social media platforms," said Erik Logan, who serves as President of OWN with Sheri Salata. "The special Oprah-branded experience will reach millions of passionate Huffington Post readers in addition to the loyal followers of Oprah.com," Salata said.

In the meantime, until the new Oprah Winfrey section launches, check out HuffPost GPS for the Soul for the latest tips to find inner peace and happiness.

"Becoming Fearless," a 10-part video series, launches today on HuffPost Healthy Living. Hosted by Arianna Huffington and based on her book "On Becoming Fearless," the series will explore the way fear affects our lives and celebrate the strength, courage and resilience that result from overcoming it.

During the course of the series, Huffington will be joined by noted individuals, including Kathy Griffin, Lisa Lapanelli, Bill Rancic, Maria Bartiromo, Jean Chatzky and more as they examine fear and its impact on love, money, parenting, work, health and beauty.

Original editorial content -- blogs, quizzes, interviews, reported pieces -- will accompany the series, which is sponsored by Toyota Corolla and continues through August.

Check out the first video of the series to learn how to become fearless about money:

The second experience is called Powering Content, and was led by Ned Brody, AOL Chief Revenue Officer and President of AOL Advertising, Jim Stengel, Member of AOL Board of Directors and Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post Media Group

Michael Eisner of Vuguru on stage now debuts original content on AOL #aolnewfrontYolanda Lam

Michael Eisner is on stage at the #aolnewfront - takes me back to watching Sunday night Disney movies on tv as a child!Melissa

Michael Eisner talks about the power of story-driven content. @aoladvertising #aolnewfrontNicole Estebanell

the internet is having its cable moment - Michael Eisner (!) #aolnewfrontRafael P

M.eisner "blame the rain" on ratings or larger shift afoot..pokes at nytimes article on ratings this week at #aolnewfrontJulie Diffenbach

We were then joined by Vuguru CEO Larry Tanz, who was joined on stage by the cast of the new show, Little Women Big Cars, Julie Warner, Kristy Swanson, Amy Yasbeck and Romy Rosemont, which will be coming to AOL soon.

Thanks to our partners at Ford, we gave away a brand new Ford Mustang convertible. And for each mile the lucky winner from 360i drives, we will donate to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital on behalf of our friend Marlo Thomas.

Car giveaway at #aolnewfront !!!!Julie Diffenbach

And more exciting than cars, generous donations to st jude #aolnewfrontJulie Diffenbach

Way to end with a bang AOL by giving away a MUSTANG CONVERTIBLE! so crazy! Of course I didn't win :( #aolnewfrontCarmen Loo

Thanks to our partners: We were able to give a guest of #aolnewfront a new @Ford Mustang convertible and help our friends at @stjude too!AOL Advertising

For each mile the lucky winner drives, we will donate $1 to @stjude on behalf of our friend @marlothomas. #aolnewfrontAOL Advertising

We are happy to say that many guests seemed to enjoy the event...

Aol is crushing it at their first annual #aolnewfrontDave Marsey

@ #aolnewfront loving the venue and the content. Well done AOL!!Emilee Stansell

My first newfront(!), but think Aol is doing a great job with a more complicated story/objective than TV upfronts. #aolnewfrontSarah Allen Potemkin

really exciting to see the ways aol is trying to lead across a lot of platforms! #aolnewfrontRafael P

@aolnewfront the future of AOL looks bright #aolnewfrontAdam Erhard

Great show tonight, thanks!!!!' #aolnewfront #dcnfDeva Bronson

On Tuesday, AOL was excited to be part of our first-ever Digital Content NewFront. In front of a crowd of hundreds of guests including digital marketers, agency representatives and friends of AOL, we presented new offerings and original programming from AOL Video, and the latest innovations from The Huffington Postscheduled to debut later this year, including the launches of "Huffington.", a new iPad magazine app, the Huffington Post Streaming Network and "GPS For The Soul", an iPad app designed to sense your tension level and provide you the right content to lift your mood.

We wanted our NewFront experience to be unique, so we decided to do things a little differently. Splitting the audience into two groups, we created separate experiences for the first half hour, with each panel repeating for the other audience after the half hour was up and the groups switched.

Experience #1, kicked off by AOL's SVP and Head of Sales Jim Norton and led by Janet Balis, SVP & Head of Sales Strategy, was called Powering Ideas, and explored the ways that digital is at a crossroads, and AOL is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this opportunity. Janet shared how AOL builds valuable partnerships to drive results that can move clients' brands forward. Janet took a look back at the content behind Powering Ideas in a post from earlier this morning.

Experience #2 was called Powering Brands, and focused on how AOL is powered by its amazing collection of brands.

After an introduction by AOL Chief Revenue Officer and President of AOL Advertising Ned Brody, Jim Stengel, former Chief Marketing Officer of Procter and Gamble, member of the AOL Board of Directors, and author of "Grow", led a conversation about brand ideals that featured AOL and Huffington Post Editors Michael Hogan (Entertainment), Susan Kaplow (Life and Style), David Kiley (Autos), Christina Norman (Black Voices) and Tim Stevens (Engadget). The editors explained the power and value of brands created through their content.

Next up in Experience #2, Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post Media Group, gave an update on the growth of the Huffington Post, and highlighted 4 new Huffington Post product launches:

Huffington. - A new magazine app that takes the best of the Huffington Post and presents them in the perfect mobile setting.

HuffPost Streaming Network - a 24/7 livestreaming network that will combine Huffington Post's editorial philosophy and strong community into a uniquely social video experience

GPS for the Soul - an app that will measure your stress level and connect you to content that you need to "restore your balance".

Causes - connecting the Huffington Post community brands to help drive awareness of what really matters, through programs like Global Motherhood, in partnership with Johnson & Johnson.

In the final session, led by AOL CEO and Chairman, Tim Armstrong, we introduced The AOL On Network, a new video platform that offers premium content across 14 content channels including food, business, entertainment, style, tech, travel, health and others, and reaches nearly 57 million U.S. consumers.* Read more about The AOL On Network in our blog post from yesterday.

During Tim's session, we were joined by an amazing group of guests on stage:

Nina was joined on stage by fashion designers, and AOL On Style Curators, Erin Fetherston and Rachel Roy, who talked about what inspires them as they create their collections.

Vuguru founder and Chairman Michael Eisner, who spoke about the value of original web content.

The cast of Little Women Big Cars, a new series coming to AOL this summer, Julie Warner, Kristy Swanson, Amy Yasbeck and Romy Rosemont.

Amy Harris, writer of Sex and the City, joined us to talk about her new project called "Fetching", which stars a young woman who quit her job as a lawyer and ended her engagement in hopes of pursuing her dreams of opening a doggy daycare store.

We then capped off the event with a special surprise. Through our partners at Ford, we were able to give away a new Ford Mustang Convertible to a lucky attendee of the event, and pledged to donate $1 for every mile the winner drove in their car for the next 5 years on behalf of our friends at St Jude's Children's Research Hospital, for whom our friend Marlo Thomas is very passionate about.

All in all, it was a great day for AOL and we hope it was for our attendees as well. Read what the social web was saying in our Storify recap by clicking here or viewing it above.